1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bicycle direction light control system and method thereof with automatic warning; in particular, to a bicycle direction light control system and method thereof with automatic pre-warning.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the price of crude oil has wildly increased and eco-consciousness is raised, such that more and more people use the bicycle to serve as the means of transportation in daily life. Nevertheless, the warning equipment (for example, car lamp, stop light, back view mirror, direction light, . . . etc.) is insufficient for a bicycle such that the peril of riding a bicycle on the road is higher than the peril of driving an automobile. In view of foregoing reason, more and more manufacturers join to design and produce the warning equipment for bicycles.
In the Taiwanese patent M417298, an apparatus for bicycle direction light is provided. The apparatus has a controllable steering mechanism which can automatically turn on the corresponding direction light when the bicycle makes a turn. Beside, in the Taiwanese patent M376487, a method is disclosed, in which an accelerometer is utilized to sense the acceleration and the angle variation of the bicycle and, under an intention of turning a direction, to transmit a wireless direction signal to a plurality of direction lights to drive the direction lights to send a warning signal for the user's turning direction. The above methods utilize the movement of the car-body turning to drive the steering direction lights. Nevertheless, the drawback of the abovementioned method for controlling the direction lights by means of the car-body turning is that each time the direction light is enabled only after the user makes a turn or when user makes a turn such that the pre-warning effect cannot be achieved. Such drawback reduces the effect of the direction light and causes the driver of the following car to have no enough time to response. In the Japanese patent JP2010-23583A, it discloses a method to trigger the left and right direction indicator by means of an image sensor to sense user's face. The method provided in the JP2010-23583A has a hidden drawback, that is, when the image sensing module, such as CCD/CMOS, is in a low-light condition, such as in night, the captured image has poor image quality, and misjudgment would occur. Even if the CCD/CMOS module adds IR function, misjudgment would also occur due to the fact that image gray scale distribution is too uniform. Moreover, the cost thereof is higher.
As such, applicant provides a bicycle direction light control system and a method thereof with automatic pre-warning. The direction light can be enabled at 10 to 20 meters before a turning point so that the pre-warning effect is achieved.